PORT TOWNSEND — Internet and phone service were returning gradually to thousands of residents in Port Townsend and portions of surrounding East Jefferson County on Saturday afternoon after a CenturyLink line was severed.
A large dump truck damaged an overhead CenturyLink phone and Internet line south of Port Townsend at about 8:50 a.m., said police and a CenturyLink spokeswoman.
Some service restored
As of about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, service had been restored to some customers, and CenturyLink repair crews had between two to three hours of repair work left on a fiber-optic Internet and phone cable running above state Highway 20 at the intersection with Frederick Street, said Jan Kampbell, CenturyLink spokeswoman.
She said restoration of Internet and phone service to all customers could be expected after all the repairs are made.
Kampbell said she could estimate only that “thousands” of customers had had service interrupted.
Dump truck
Port Townsend Police Department Officer Luke Bogues said a dump truck passing under the line reportedly severed it with its raised dump bed.
During the outage, emergency management personnel did not have consistent access to online records.
“So everything [was] essentially pen and paper,” Bogues said.
Keppie Keplinger, public information officer for Jefferson County Emergency Management, said 9-1-1 calls were rerouted during the outage so emergency dispatchers could be reached.
Bogues advised those without phone service who needed to report emergencies to try to find a neighbor with phone service or go to the nearest police or fire station.
An East Jefferson Fire-Rescue crew saw the dump truck sever the overhead line, Bogues said, and reported it to police.
Port Townsend police officers had not, by Saturday afternoon, tracked down the truck, which did not stop after it severed the line, Bogues said.
“It was described as [having] a dark color with a shiny new dump bed,” he said.
Outside city limit
Bogues said Port Townsend police and Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies both responded to the scene since it was just outside the city limit but that the Sheriff’s Office will take the lead in investigating the incident.
“Until we know otherwise, it would be investigated as a hit-and-run collision,” Bogues said.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the truck can phone the Port Townsend Police Department’s non-emergency number at 360-385-2322 or the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at 360-385-3831, Bogues said.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
